Past Warriors, Post Heroes
by Conso Anima
Summary: Where do we being, and where do we end? For Guardians, we obviously begin with a Ghost...yet is that a new beginning, or the continuation of one? Most don't remember anything, but my shoulders feel freed from these tiny flickers I feel. One-shot, sort of exploring the strength and motivation even the tiniest sparks of memory can achieve.


Disclaimer: I don't own Destiny, just the barely-described character that follows in this story in the sense that I named her.

One-shot.

* * *

Breath. Her eyes glazed over as she remembered her first, after this little spiked contraption of a 'Ghost' told her she lived once more. Speaking of it brought its gaze towards her, before she gave a light snort that mixed with a smirk.

"What? Do I have something on me?" it seemingly chirped, spinning itself around to try and glance.

"No...Little Light."

"Oh, come on! She said it exactly once, why is that going to be _my_ nickname?"

"It amuses me. Mostly your reaction, anyway," she answered, before hesitantly following on, "How many Guardians remember...before? Their original life? I've...only the ghosts of instinct and feelings"

The Ghost gave a warble, thinking for a moment before it said, "Flashes are the max for almost anyone. While Light reconstitutes you entirely from any point of your death, rebuilds your neural pathways, it hardly holds your real memories anymore. I wish I had better news for you," it finished morosely.

She simply hummed, before altering her jumpship's course a bit. The Ghost's light flickered in response before deciding not to comment. It was a path they knew fairly well, after all, especially as she set in an autopilot and an alarm. The deep breath in through her nose indicated she was about to meditate, and so the Ghost joined her as her Light's conduit. It was used to this sort of thing, being bonded to a Warlock, and so began to straighten the Light's pathways to help her reach inside herself.

It quickly realized the introspection and questions started to seemingly open up nodes, leaving her with those same flashes. A near-electrical thrill ran through it. It would finally be able to see its Guardian, or at least where she came from, to a degree.

 _"Exodus Black? We're deploying?" she asked, worry mixing with anticipation._

 _"Maybe. We're to head to the Cosmodrome. Warmind network's buzzing, it's...Rasputin's gone radio si-"_

The flash jarred and abruptly cut off.

 _"C'mon, we need to get going! I'm part of the defense, but you're still civilian. They'll load you first, I'll be close behind!" the Guardian's past self called out, pulling a warm hand while her left maintained a solid grip on her rifle. Cosmodrome walls stood in front of her, seemingly fortified._

 _Beyond, large guns kept up a continuous barrage. The reverberating sounds behind them indicated hits in her mind._

 _A blob seeming to absorb any light and even the darkness arced towards the walls, and the corresponding light-_

The Ghost nearly flinched in its bond, even as its partner did. She took her gloves off, shoving sweat off her brow as she breathed hard. She took another deep breath right before the alarm went off. She tapped it off before sliding the gloves back on, the helmet following thereafter.

The ship started to slow as she took it out of autopilot, before setting a landing zone a fair ways away. The Ghost brought itself back into reality and tilted at her in the likeness of a nod, setting coordinates as just outside the walls they had seen earlier. They shared a glance, knowing they were sharing similar thoughts. Whatever bond was in that flash was ended, and in its place a new one, as permanent as it could get. A single nod from her let the Ghost know she was with it.

The transmat finished in just a moment as she straightened up from experience. The rifle in her vision had hardly changed, but she felt she had as she started the journey down the road. The Fallen Ketch had long since left, leaving precious little behind as Eliksni weren't the type to leave their dead.

"Where I found you is a bit further ahead," it muttered. She nodded as she strode forward, feeling anticipation in her gut as she wandered closer. She wasn't entirely certain of how she felt about it this time, with the past on her mind. Unbidden insecurities held her feet as she stopped close.

"I-we don't have to do this…"

"We don't. We can turn around now, or we can face it. This is less than the Black Garden, Atheon, Crota, and everything afterward. So many Guardians never learn anything about themselves, and even fewer deserve some form of peace with their past. This is a part of you, as much as the Light. If you're curious, you actually stumbled out from behind the car a few feet in front of us and ended up here when you fully regained consciousness," it reassured her.

She closed her eyes and breathed, before nodding. She steeled herself and took the last few steps. Another pivot and step brought her to the beginning of her life as a Guardian as she knelt down. She gently ran her hand across the ground, feeling its rough texture and the little grass that rested over the spot as she set the rifle down next to her.

Removing the helmet let her feel the breeze across her face. A gasp followed by a feeling-the feeling of a pendant bouncing. Eyes narrowed, she dug quickly around.

"Wait! Instead of scrabbling around for an hour, I can scan for whatever you're looking for," it called out, materializing in front of her. She nearly bit her lip as the flash simply didn't provide much information except weight.

"I-it's a pendant. Maybe a locket?" she breathed out, electricity sparking across her in her agitation. The Ghost gave another nod before scanning around. It groaned softly in exasperation as it found what it was looking for in a way. A transmat on something so small was easy and quick to do, and so the pendant landed on the ground in front of the Warlock with nary a sound.

The same lack was suddenly obvious as well in the Warlock as she near completely stilled, the pendant in front of her. The Ghost looked around and started to keep watch as the Guardian's mind slowly restarted, the jewelry warped but not out of recognition. A sense of wonder was clouded in her mind as she felt the flash of feelings attributed to them rise.

The urge to reach out and touch it rose, biting hard into the sense of staying still in reverence. She gave in to the urge, gently tapping it with two fingers before another flash played in her mind.

 _"Prague?" she asked, taking the rather small pendant._

 _"No, here. Surprised it's from close to the Cosmodrome?" the voice asked as the shadow-wreathed hand seemed to guide one of her fingers to a near-invisible button. The locket opened and revealed a picture of-_

She flinched as the flash left her. Every single time she thought she'd catch some feature beyond the most basic silhouette she lost the grasp of it. The Ghost floated down to her sight as her hand tightened around the warped locket, the flashes again threatening her. She slowly donned the helmet and picked the rifle back up as she squared herself away.

"North? Ghost, there's a-a town. Scandinavia? No, it's off a fjord. Cold. We always liked the cold, an excuse to be close…" she voiced, her tone wavering as she felt the last bits of the flash die away. She looked at it with the same steel in her eyes from earlier as she followed, "We've dived this far into the rabbit hole, would you mind if we continued Ghost?"

"Not at all. The ones nearby are likely going to be the Kola Peninsula. There's a few there if you want me to pull up a map in the jumpship. They're not as famous as the fjords elsewhere but-"

"But for those who keep to themselves, a lesser-known fjord is solemnly beautiful in how untouched it is. Makes it more romantic when you take someone there, or someone takes you there and tells you that staying there is possible," she murmured, before nodding.

"I'll check the records, see if there's some form of census for towns there right before the Collapse. It should be under some form of regional coverage for that, should be in Murmansk if we need to find it," it offered resolutely. She gave a crisp nod as the jumpship came back around, and the transmat process found her seated again.

* * *

Less than an hour later found her climbing in the rubble of what was likely a government server center in Murmansk, her Ghost lighting the area up as it perused barely-functional drives. It kept tutting as it scanned information nearly as fast as the servers could handle, before finally finding a good pathway. A few seconds later it gave a happy exclamation.

"Aha! Whew. Thought I'd not find it, but apparently triple backups was still a thing even during the Golden Age. Based off your information that you believe you'd transferred to the Cosmodrome's defense forces, there's a security order for roughly 29 individuals. No pictures, but text survived. Katerina Sirko is a match for you. I have the address and coordinates for your old home, but I'm not sure how much survived due to its proximity to military forces," it reported, its voice dropping enthusiasm as it started to relay all the information.

"I figured. Let's get there, then we'll see."

* * *

As the jumpship lifted off and slowly flew away to a safe touchdown point, the Warlock glancing towards the frame of a house. Frost covered a lot of it except for a few stubborn planks and some of the siding, most of it blown away or destroyed in some fashion. The tension in her shoulders left her as she gazed at it, the Ghost feeling just as despondent in its inability to help. It took her a cold minute to look before her head fell the same as her shoulders did.

"I...I knew, but I still wanted to come. Even if it didn't matter. Ghost, thank you for helping me," she muttered out, turning back around. Wrongness settled in her mind as she gently pushed the rusted gate open, before tensing as another flash came to her.

 _She'd failed. She knew she would at some point, so why should it be a surprise that she would fail her partner? The one she was supposed to be with had that disappointment in their eyes! How could she stand to be there? She dashed out the front, shoving the gate open before collapsing to her knees. Why? WHY?!_

 _She had no idea how long she knelt there, but she knew it couldn't have been long as a loving warmth enveloped her from behind. "Shh. It's alright. You know why? You love me, and I love you. Let's go inside and get warm, I'll tell you that you're trying to put too much weight on your shoulders, and we'll comfort each other. She closed her eyes before a gently hand on her cheek turned her face towards her lover, and her eyes opened-_

The Guardian gasped as she spun on her heel, dashing forward. She pulled upon the Void Light burning in her and slammed a Nova Bomb into a pile of rubble near the East end of the house, blasting away stone and decayed wood to reveal a damaged staircase. Barely able to contain herself, she leapt and glided down it to find a near-untouched basement.

A desk stood in the corner, covered in frost, but a surprisingly odd shape beckoned her attention. This time, her Solar powers awoke as she gently peeled the frost away with her Light, revealing a highly yellowed letter. Reflexes honed in fights helped her grab and unseal the letter with ease, helped by failed adhesive.

 _Katerina,_

 _Should the worst come to pass and this evacuation fails with me on it, I wish to leave you something after the fighting that I know you will do. You are the one I love, this life and the next. I've no doubt you will make it, and triumph. I know your strength even if you do not, you will rise above and conquer anything that threatens those you feel you must protect._

 _If you must mourn me, do so. But know that I will never mourn being yours, and you being mine. You are destined for greatness, I feel it. Dive into your destiny with the assurance that whatever comes your way, I and everyone else will be rooting for you._

She gently pulled the helmet off as she reread the letter, before closing it back up and lightly putting it into a pocket. She felt the tears welling up as she felt the ghost of that same warmth surround her, before squaring her shoulders.

"I don't remember the face, the name, or even how we met...but whoever he or she was, I loved them with my whole heart before I met you Ghost. I feel...that it gave me the ability to realize exactly what I needed to do, to push myself forward and not give into the want to back down and let someone else handle it. I'm glad we did this, but it's the past. I'll never forget the feeling, but now I need to fight for everyone who will feel the same. It's what needs to be done," she said resolutely, standing up straight as she became the pillar of strength humanity needed.

"I won't leave you, Guardian. Is there anything else before we move on?" it asked, not of impatience but sensing his Warlock's wont of pressing on. She nodded as she pulled the 7G-0X off her back and gently placed it on the desk she distinctly felt was not her own.

"While I don't remember you, this gift is from the life and destiny you sensed I had. You were right-more than you might ever believe. Thank you for believing in me then and now," she murmured, this time letting the tears fall from her eyes freely as she felt the warmth envelop her once more, the phantom of a kiss passing on her lips. She turned away as the warmth died away and left, the feeling of peace settling on her and covering her from the cold. Her voice came across strong and clear as she asked, "Is there a Vanguard issue near the Cosmodrome still? I know SIVA is nearly wiped out, and the Taken are regressing. Hive?"

"Well, as it just so happens there's a brood mother that's been resisting its assassination orders...several Guardians have been run out of its nest. You up for a plunge into an old nuclear shelter?"

"An adventure, then. Let's try it Ghost."

"Of course. It's good to have you back to full, Katerina."

"Mmm. Time to kick the Hive off our planet."

* * *

I always wanted to toy with the idea of a character remembering something beyond their life in the Vanguard, that some things would _stay_ beyond their revival. Some of Cayde's journals mildly support that thought for Exos, but I didn't want to narrow it too far. So the entirety of the looks for Katerina's partner is left shrouded, and even her own are as well. She could be Awoken or human, unfortunately Exos likely don't sweat.

It makes sense with your character, though, that they would remember _something._ Your character skips past the numerous deaths of others and straight into 'Badass' territory even with the most basic gear, opening up the ability to fight against the Darkness' minions across multiple worlds in areas previously thought unassailable or suicidal.

The character is further reinforced that thought in Destiny 2, being the one the Traveler seems to call on. This would serve as a sort of character building bridge between the two games, hell, you could imagine the Cabal attack right as they start returning from the mission I just came up with.

As for romantic=Ghost bond, it doesn't. But it is a new bond, in this case forged in the ashes of the old. Both support and provide the drive to move forward, though.


End file.
